Postal Service gets more Stamford bad news

Stamford Advocate

Staff Report

Published 10:41 pm, Monday, November 11, 2013

The U.S. Postal Service has announced it plans to close and relocate two Stamford, Conn. post offices, including downtown's Atlantic Street station. The plan is to also relocate the Ridgeway station located at 60 Sixth Street. A public meeting was held Tuesday August 17, 2010 at the Stamford Government Center.
Photo: Cathy Zuraw, ST

The United States Postal Service wants to sell its old, 1916-era post office to a developer for about $4.3 million. The building is on the national registry, but it's in poor condition. The developer plans on build apartments at the site, but has, according to court records, agreed to preserve the building.

So far it hasn't gone terribly well for the post office.

A group opposed to the sale has sued to stop it, winning an injunction from a federal judge, and one of them, Kaysay Abrha, who had a PO box there, filed an appeal with the regulatory commission, claiming the postal service failed to follow its own rules and the law when it closed the post office. Abrha, according to the filing, asked the commission to order the reopening of the Post Office on Atlantic Street until the matter is settled.

On Nov. 8, the public representative to the commission handed the Postal Service another bad piece of news and urged it to continue its hearings despite the Postal Service's objections.

In the Postal Regulatory Commission case, the key is whether the Postal Service has simply suspended service or discontinued it.

The difference is that the Postal Service is required by law to hold public hearings and notify customers at least 60 days in advance of a closing, rather than the two days the Atlantic Street postal customers were given.

Tracy N. Ferguson, the commission's public representative, said after reviewing the arguments from the two sides, she recommends the Postal Service "be required to conduct a proper discontinuance process."

She laid out some of the arguments in her filing with the commission, noting the Postal Service claimed a Sept. 4 inspection found severe deterioration, which justified an emergency suspension.

"The Postal Service executed an Agreement of Purchase and Sale of property in December of 2012... The Postal Service knew, as of December 2012, it would need to either vacate or lease back space at 421 Atlantic Street once the sale was finalized in September 2013. This gave the Postal Service nine months to arranged and negotiate an alternative site for lease-back agreement... Given the facts as presented, the Public Representative is not swayed by the Postal Service's characterization of the situation as an emergency."

In the meantime, the shuttered post office has been vandalized with a rail stolen and a bronze lantern damaged. PO box customers must now use the West Avenue Post Office to get their mail.